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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

From Forbes.comI just thought you might want to be aware of these taxes!

Payroll Tax

Employers and employees split the cost of payroll taxes--the Social Security, Medicare and miscellaneous taxes you see listed as "FICA" on your paycheck. But many economists argue that you're paid less so that your employer can compensate for tax it pays just to keep you on the payroll. If you earn $97,500 or less, this could mean a 15.3% reduction in your take-home pay. (Half in the payroll tax you pay, half in your employer's share.) According to the Tax Policy Center, about two-thirds of all wage earners fork over more to Uncle Sam in payroll taxes (including the employer's share) than in income taxes.

Alternative Minimum Tax

The IRS' National Taxpayer Advocate calls the AMT "the poster child for tax law complexity." And because it's not indexed to inflation, it's ensnaring more of the middle class--particularly families with lots of kids and second mortgages. The AMT affected 4 million taxpayers in 2006, but this number could balloon to 23 million this year if Congress does not fix the problem, as it has done in years past. Why don't lawmakers just eliminate the AMT? Because it's expected to bring in about $800 billion in government revenue over the next 10 years.

Sources: Tax Policy Center, Internal Revenue Service

Social Security Tax

For your entire working life, Uncle Sam takes a chunk of your pay to help pay for Social Security. But when you start receiving a Social Security paycheck, you still may be taxed on some of this income--sometimes as much as 85% of it. If your total income plus half of your Social Security benefits exceeds $34,000 ($44,000 for couples filing jointly), you get stuck paying the 85% rate. Others, who earn less, either have 50% or 0% of their Social Security taxed. Like the AMT, these figures aren't adjusted for inflation, meaning an increasing number of people are being ensnared by the tax. Some price for retiring!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Below is a transcript of the Rush Limbaugh show. It is a conversation including Obama and other strong voices. Do you think kindergarten students should be taught sex ed? And if so....on what level? Read about it below! Also, what do you think about all of the things Hilary Clinton is trying to control? Shouldn't you get to choose what kindergarten your child attends? I agree to some degree about teaching children at a young age where they should not allow anyone to touch but it is a very fine line to walk. There are just things that a five year old can't understand and shouldn't have to try to understand. They are only children once and it would be a terrible thing to force them to grow up faster then needed. I would love to hear your opinions. I am a little torn but I think if it is handled VERY carefully and VERY controlled it is possible teaching children things they need to know to protect themselves could be a good thing. But really....how much that is "controlled" by the government is "handled very carefully"? I mean we see people on welfare who are in "poverty"....and yet they walk around fully clothed, with cars, and are obviously well fed! ....now don't get offended because I know some people really do need the food stamps and the help and they are trying to turn their lives around....but some people....even if they started out with good intentions are now taking advantage of the welfare system. So, who is to say that this new teaching system wouldn't get taken advantage of or overlooked/neglected in the future?

RUSH: On Tuesday of last week, Planned Parenthood's annual public affairs conference in Washington, Barack Obama, referring to Republican Alan Keyes and sex education, said this.

OBAMA: I remember him using this in his campaign against me, saying, "Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners." (Laughter.) And -- you know, which, I didn't know what to tell him. (Laughter.) But it's the right thing to do. You know, to -- to provide age-appropriate sex education, science based sex education in the schools.

RUSH: Yeah, kindergarten. Barack Obama, sex education in kindergarten. Now, the next day, July 18th, on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney responded to these comments from Obama by saying this.

ROMNEY: How much sex education is age-appropriate for a five-year-old? In my view, zero is the right amount. (Applause.) Instead of teaching about sex education in kindergarten to five-year-olds, let's clean up the ocean of filth, the cesspool in which our kids are swimming.

RUSH: All right, amen, right on, right on, right on, right on, right on, right on. This is all part of the Democrat effort -- if you listen to Obama and Hillary and Edwards, they want abortion on demand, paid for by the taxpayers, they want national, universal health care for everybody. They just want total control over your life, now to the point of sex education of kids. Well, this finally woke up somebody who's been dormant and lying prostrate for a little while, Joycelyn Elders. Remember her, the sturgeon general from the Clinton administration. She was on Fox and Friends this morning, Gretchen Carlson talked to her, said, "Look, Senator Obama last week said that he would agree with certain types of sex education for kindergarteners when it comes to teaching them what appropriate touching is, what inappropriate touching is. I assume you agree with Barack Obama to the full capacity, or do you have a differing opinion at all?"

ELDERS: I agree with Mr. Obama to the full capacity. I feel that we should have age-appropriate, scientifically based evidence, sex education taught in schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

RUSH: Okay, so as for kindergarteners, what would be appropriate?

ELDERS: To teach them that there are certain places on the bodies nobody is to touch. If they do, they should tell somebody, and if somebody is touching them in ways that makes them feel uncomfortable, you know, so much more sex goes on above the neck than it does below the waist.

RUSH: Hmm. That's why I've been missing out all my life. I've been heading in the wrong direction. Sex takes place above the neck. She would know, from the Clinton administration, wouldn't you think? No wonder I've been bombing out. I've been zeroing in on the wrong places. Let's go back, shall we? July 11th, 1999, Fox News Sunday, Elaine Bennett and Joycelyn Elders. Tony Snow hosting the show said, "Dr. Elders, you earlier said that we shouldn't be guilty of innocence. Is that an overly innocent way of looking at the way the world works these days?"

ELDERS: You know, if we want to talk about teaching children sexuality education, it starts at birth. And it's self-esteem, how you feel about yourself, it's all of those things.

RUSH: Let's go even further back, from the woman who just told us that more sex goes on above the neck than it does below the waist, this is audio from my TV show, December 12th, 1994. Here is Joycelyn Elders talking about masturbation.

ELDERS: In regard to masturbation, I think that that is something that is a part of human sexuality, and it is a part of something that perhaps should be taught.

RUSH: So my only question, since she thinks that masturbation should be taught, and she meant in grade school, masturbation should be taught and much more sex goes on above the neck than it does below the waist, how she must know this. How do you masturbate above the neck?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Since we're talking about sex, kindergarten and all this, I want to share with you an editorial from the Investor's Business Daily, actually an opinion column. It was from July 20th, posted last Friday. "Senator Hillary Clinton ignited few fireworks, speaking before the nation's largest teachers union over the July 4th holiday, but one proposal is proving explosive: state-run preschool for all families. Her proposal, which was introduced Thursday in the Senate, last Thursday, would give the states $28 billion over five years to incorporate the nation's 120,000 preschools now run in firms, churches, and storefronts into a government-run system. The former Goldwater girl's come a long way from the western ways of neighborhood values that she once embraced. Her universal preschool idea is sparking heated debate over the back fence and in policy circles, but the question is basic: How much control should the government have in raising and teaching our young kids?"

Now, what you have to remember about this, she's saying that the government should take over small, independent preschools. What are small, independent preschools? They are independent and private businesses. A preschool is a private business. You send your kid to a preschool that's not part of the state education system, and you're paying for it, you obviously know you're sending your kid to a private business. Hillary Clinton wants to come in and essentially nationalize them all, under state control. I'm telling you, these people, if they get power, if they win the White House, the first thing that they're going to do is go after and outlaw home schooling. It's going to happen so fast it will curl your hair. They want control over every aspect of your kid's life, even now suggesting sex education in kindergarten, and let's not pull any punches. We all know what that's about. We all know what sex education in kindergarten is all about. These people are loony, folks.

They're painting Mrs. Clinton here as a moderate? But compared to Obama and Edwards, I mean they're all suggesting the same thing: government-provided abortion, socialization of the health care system, taking your kids at age four now, and getting them into their state-run, government-run kindergartens. They're basically taking away your choice, and they're taking away your kid. You want to send your kid to a preschool that you pay for. Mrs. Clinton wants to shut them down and have them taken over by the states just like she wants to seize the profits from Exxon as she said.

I really believe that, as a nation, we are slipping into a state of apathy and that we need to wake up. If we don't wake up now...10 or 15 years from now it will be too late. This site is my attempt to keep people informed by posting news and relevant information with the idea that a free opinion exchange should occur. I want people to comment and respond to comments... even if you disagree...especially if you disagree! I think it is better that we care and disagree then to not care at all.

The only way we are going to make a difference is to care enough to say something!